I Finally Tried Linus s BEST Backpack Can It Beat the Industry Classic

We're pitting LTT's iconic 35 liter tech backpack versus a backpack from a brand everyone swore by decades ago. Why, you ask? Well, my team and I did a deep investigation into who makes LTT backpacks. And surprisingly, they also make this company's backpacks too. And the more we looked, the more we wondered, how come these backpacks are so cheap compared to LTT? Especially when So, this is the iconic 35 liter tech influencer backpack from Linus Tech Tips. And at $250, it's not exactly a small purchase for something that you use to just hold your things for you. But that's the industry standard right now. Similar size backpacks from well-known carry brands like Air, GORUCK, Able Carry, Peak Design, or Timbuk2 all come in around the same price. But what if there was a similar size backpack from a company that uses the same supplier as Linus? And this is the Drifter 2 from Targus, a bag from a 40-year veteran in the backpack industry that can be found for less than a quarter of LTT's price at $60. And yes, I know it has a unique style. It reminds me of Swissgear, the other backpack brand your grandpa probably swore by. But according to Cargo Shipping Tractors, yes, we did some investigating here, Creator Warehouse gets their bags produced by Supercase, for whom Targus is one of their biggest customers. So, did Linus reach the goal he set out to achieve? Or is $60 enough for a competent bag from a real backpack company? But before we dive into the backpacks, it's important to understand why anyone would ever consider such ginormous backpacks like these. Since we've been expanding the channel and covering more general tech, we have to stay on the cutting edge. And that involves going to things like CES, the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, where they showcase all the new tech of the year, which means traveling. But it's not any trip. This trip involves bringing equipment to film things. Cameras, microphones, data storage, laptops, lights, all of which are fragile items I would hate to get lost and check the baggage. And that's where big backpacks come in. They can carry all the work stuff, as well as the necessary travel things, without having to check them in and risk losing and damaging it all. So, the LTT backpack actually stems from Linus's desire to have a good travel backpack in the first place. It came out three years ago in 2022 and was the first piece of LTT store merch that would actually interact with your tech. Before that, they released primarily apparel, water bottles, and desk mats. And since then, it's been one of their best-selling products. Targus, on the other hand, has been doing this backpack thing for almost 50 years. I've never heard of them before, but I asked anyone who's been in tech for a hot minute and they tell me Targus is the company to go to for laptop bags. It's one of those companies that are everywhere in Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, and even Target. But they don't have a strong brand, so people forget about it. And the Drifter 2 is one of the few backpacks they offer that can carry 35 liters, so it can compete more squarely with the huge LTT backpack. So, let's put them head-to-head. We got the LTT backpack sent to us and we bought the Targus Drifter 2 ourselves. Here's how I'll test them. We'll be packing everything we do daily into both bags and see. Does the organization make sense? Are they comfortable? And how hard will it be to remember where everything is? After all, they each have a billion pockets. So, let's start from the outside. Since these backpacks are meant to carry tech, it's important that they can handle heavy rain and crazy weather. It rained like that last week and I was super worried that my tech would get soaked in the process. Thankfully though, they survived. So, side by side, the style of the bags are very different. The LTT backpack is a plain black canvas without much to really make it stand out visually, other than the subtle black on black LTT logo on the front. Now, if you don't know the brand, chances are you wouldn't recognize it as a creator-made tech backpack. There's no orange in sight, shockingly. The overall silhouette is big and boxy and it's surprisingly lightweight for how big it is. It can also self-stand, although I've heard stories that once you pack it out, it'll tip right over. And the material on the outside is reprieve, the same as their smaller LTT commuter backpack. It's water resistant, but not waterproof. If you ask me how much I thought this thing would cost, I don't think I would say $250, just because it doesn't have any unique stylistic elements like other bag companies do nowadays. One great way to free up space in your backpack is to simply pack less. Revolutionary idea, I know. The best way to do that is with the Anker Prime charger from today's sponsor, Anker. It's a compact size, 3-port USB-C charging block that has a total output of 160 watts. It also has a smart display and touchscreen. With 140 watts of power coming from every port, you can stay on top of all your devices. If you're looking to ditch multiple cables and clear up space on your desk, then check out the Anker Prime wireless charging station. It's the do-everything device you didn't know you needed. It's the world's first 25-watt wireless charger with an active cooling system and built-in display. If you're tired of carrying around three separate chargers just to power your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, which trust me, I am, then this thing is going to be a game changer. The simple single cord setup will have your desk looking clean. Plus, who doesn't want to save time with less cable management in their lives? Sometimes I get tired of a rat's nest of cables on my desk, and the display on the front isn't just for decoration, it's showing you real-time updates on the power, temperature, and charging status of all three of your devices. Like that wasn't cool enough, it's also a touchscreen, which allows you to customize the screen and switch between multiple charging modes. It has three different charging modes for all-day power. Boost mode for quick top-ups before heading out, Ice mode which provides maximum cooling with rapid charging performance, and Sleep mode which turns off cooling and dims the display for quiet overnight charging. With my ever-changing schedule, especially since becoming a parent, I sometimes forget to charge my phone. But with those 25 watt speeds, this thing can get my iPhone from 0 to 50% in just 22 minutes. That's basically the time it takes me to remember what I walked into the room for. And with the ActiveFuel 5.0 detecting temperature 10 million times per day and the TEC active cooling, I know I'm getting the fastest charge while keeping my phone cool and protected from overheating. So seriously, ditch the tangled cords and upgrade to something that actually keeps up with your life. Go ahead and get the charger that truly does it all, a super efficient Anker Prime wireless charging station. Check it out now, the link is in the description below. On the other hand, the Drifter kind of looks like it was designed for someone that drives a PT cruiser. While it is, at first, very ugly with its reflective piping, bright orange tabs, and metal eyelets, the look has kind of grown on me over time. It's like they have a style and they aren't afraid to show it. It's not for everyone, but the people that do want to wear more than a black bag might flock to it. And it seems like the tabs and the eyelets, they might actually be useful for having a cord compression or similar to North Face or hiking bags, but the Targus doesn't stand. Not when it's empty and definitely not when it's packed out. For tech bags, especially one that holds this much stuff, self-standing is a must. No one wants their bag to fall over and land in a pile of vomit, milk, or whatever is on the floor. But when these backpacks aren't just laying on the floor, they're hanging somewhere or being carried. With all that precious tech in the bag, you wouldn't want the handles to give out and have everything hit the ground at fast velocity. So how are the handles on these bad boys? The LTT backpack has a much nicer looking but less ergonomic flat fabric handle that is triple riveted for added strength. The handle is very thick. One of the perks of being an influencer made bag is that LTT has publicly tested certain parts of it for content. And in this case, the handle is strong enough to pull a fire truck. That's crazy, but I can see that. The triple rivets really do add to how strong it's held into place. I tried tearing it apart but ended up spraining my back in the process. Dang, I'm old now. Comparatively, the Targus backpack is, once again, less appealing in appearance. But it has a lot of different parts. There's a rubbery molded material that makes the strap more comfortable to carry and inside that is a nylon strap and a metal cable surrounded by a plastic sheath. Not to mention, there's also metal rivets on the side too. It's not as clean of a design but it does the job well enough. Even with all my force, I didn't hear anything ripping apart, so that's a good sign. But when I asked Jake to do the same thing, he heard a tiny tiny tear somewhere. I can't find it but we both heard it. Definitely not as durable as the LTT backpack because it only has a single set of rivets on each side. I would give it to LTT big points here. I doubt anybody would tow fire trucks with their backpack but it truly showcases how durable the backpack can be. And if he put that much effort into just the handle, then the rest of the backpack must be just as good or so we hope. Next are the zippers. Since bad zippers can ruin a perfectly good backpack, the LTT uses standard YKK zippers which is the industry default. YKK makes up 90% of the zippers in the world so no surprise there. They're sturdy-ish but nothing game-changing. Some of the zippers are carabiners which means that you can secure your pockets by hooking one carabiner into another instead of having to use a lock for each compartment. That's awesome but earlier models of LTT backpacks have reported fragile zippers. They're also lined with a water-resistant PU coating. We tested the backpack in notoriously rainy city of Vancouver and the LTT backpack was starting to get noticeably wet in the main compartments after about 15 minutes of exposure to heavy downpour. Now LTT, aware of this problem, now sells a rain cover for the bag but it's an extra $40. So you'll want to get it if you plan to walk around in the rain because some reddit posts have noted that the orange dye in the inside sometimes bleeds when wet. The zippers on the drifter seem like they're not even up to YKK standards. No YKK logos to be seen. If you try to pull on them with just one hand sometimes they get stuck and if you try forcing them it might result in the teeth misaligning which defeats the whole purpose of having a backpack in the first place. Might as well be stuffing all my tech into a plastic bag, right? The decision to go for non-industry standard zippers just feels like a way to pinch pennies and the interior lining feels something like a sleeping bag or maybe a raincoat. So if liquid does pool in here it's gonna pool at the bottom. So no matter what you're gonna have to bring an umbrella. Now we've turned both backpacks around we have the straps. The part that connects the backpack and you. So if the straps are well made the entire backpack experience will be good and you can clearly see the stark differences between the two bags. One is sleek and modern and the other, once again, thin. Leave something to be desired. The LTT backpack here has a connected design where the two straps form a horseshoe shape at the top in one solid piece and that helps with the overall strength and durability but it also makes the fit a bit strange especially for people with larger frames like Jake who's six feet three. Since Linus tested this backpack with towing a firetruck it means the handle and the straps have to be sturdy enough to pull it which makes sense since the six rivets also attach the straps too. Underneath the straps are a ton of cushion in a and there's the breathable mesh at the top and the bottom for those who tend to sweat a lot especially in the armpit area. Although let's be honest if you're an armpit sweater no amount of mesh is gonna save you. At the top of each strap there are areas where you can attach carabiner clips and load even more gear on it if you choose to. Speaking of carabiners this backpack comes with one. Score! You have all metal connectors here for the straps which are surprisingly easy to adjust. I don't love how heavy they make the backpack feel but they're a nice addition. There's also a chest strap that you can remove or move around and finally we have a hint of orange here but it's hidden. For how robust the whole backpack is the chest strap looks like it's weak sauce. They're small, they're plastic and they're unremarkable but the Drifter 2 doesn't even have a chest strap so more points to Linus. This feels like Targets might not have taken much thought into the backpack's design like a massive oversight. The backpack is gigantic how can there be no chest strap or even the infamous waist strap that Targets is known for. It looks like the extra $190 above the Drifter does get you some real tangible benefits here. So Targets opted for two separate shoulder straps with an elastic at the top and a nylon webbing. While that acts as a shock absorber you'll notice your shoulders will feel bad over time especially if you're walking for a long period and the elastic makes the backpack bounce up and down while you're walking so going from a regular load to a heavier load at the bottom part of the motion doesn't feel great. They use regular attachments here instead of metal ones and they're strangely stiff to readjust. At the top there's some plastic d-rings to attach more stuff. Overall for a backpack that's so big Targets failed on adding padding and support to their straps while the LTT managed to do a design that could carry the load. But finally we can look at the good stuff how everything is carefully planned on the inside. Straps are important but nothing in a backpack is more important to me than pockets. I love having a lot of pockets to hold every little thing and the LTT backpack does not disappoint. In the back compartment you've got a pocket that can hold up to a 16 inch laptop, another slightly smaller laptop pocket, a tablet pocket that can be used to carry a small laptop, two pockets that can hold battery banks or chargers, and the bottom has a soft fabric where you can put a steam deck. We do not limit screen time in the presence of this back. That is an insane amount of tech but I personally won't be sticking my steam deck in the bottom of my backpack unprotected. The joysticks would break in no time. But the sheer number of pockets is impressive. But who owns this much tech? That's like three laptops and four iPads. On the other hand towards the drifter it's a little lighter on the number of total pockets. In the laptop compartment we have a single small mesh pocket at the top and a big laptop sleeve with some thick padding. Oddly enough this laptop sleeve is away from your back so it might be less intuitive to slip your laptop in blind. It also has a velcro attachment for your laptop too but it doesn't do too much other than be annoying. And in practice this laptop pouch is a terrible decision. When I walk the laptop pulls away from my back making me lean back instead of stand up proudly. But this sleeve is able to hold up to a 17.3 inch laptop. Or if you use something small like a MacBook it can fit in the long way. Not sure why you'd want that. Other than that it's just a big compartment. There's not much organization for any tech accessories. Moving on to the main compartment of the LTT bag. It has a big space of holding for your larger goods. A zippered pocket for your miscellaneous goods back here. A little side flap to hold your water bottle if you trust your water bottle to be inside your backpack like that. And an additional tiny little pocket for your air tag. This pocket doesn't open up all the way because of the side pocket here. If your laptop compartment and your quick access are both full it's really easy to lose things in the corner of this big pocket unless you really dig around. Now this all looks fine and dandy but it's a pain in the butt. I have to unzip this pocket just to access my water bottle. LTT even sells water bottles so you think they would want you to stay hydrated but instead it's hard to reach. And having water near my tech concerns me personally since I've had occasions where I haven't closed my bottles all the way. This pocket is big and unorganized so you have to separate it further with more bags of holding. Or you know just toss stuff in there and hoping you'll find it again when you need it. A drifter is designed a bit differently. You find a phone compartment up at the top here that actually velcros down to act as a flap for this bottom pocket. And theoretically you could store another laptop here if you wanted to. But at this point it would be so far away from your back. And the other side of the main compartment it's just a mesh zippered pocket. One interesting thing this backpack does that I'm not sure I've ever seen before is a cable routing channel. If you stick your hand down inside the laptop area in the main compartment you find that there is no bottom seam on it. So if you have a battery in the big part and you want to charge your laptop with it you can just run a cable under there to do so. It's smart but there's very little padding between all the pockets so things would just bump into each other. Then coming into the front of each bag, the LTT bag has a sunglasses pocket. Do I really need to put my sunglasses raw dog in a soft pocket? The front most pocket opens up big and wide like a door. There's a long pocket here with zipper access and that's for your LTT screwdriver. There's a rectangular zippered pocket here for things like thumb drives and an unzippered pocket that works well to hold a battery bank. There's also a large mesh area on the other side for HDMI and network cables if you carry those around with you. For a lot of my use this backpack has been too big and even for travel I would need to buy more bags to separate my stuff from hitting each other. It's just got too much open space with no organization. A drifter comparatively has a front pocket with no inside pockets at all. Then there's this organizational compartment or a spot for a battery bank that could hold a mouse, some sleeves for flash drives, and a hanging clip for I don't know what. It's just it's so short and it's so stiff and hard to use. Maybe if you have an extendable keychain that could work. And then on the very front of this is a tiny tiny pocket that could hold another battery bank for charging all your tech. It also has a sunglass or phone compartment lined with microfiber and it's big enough that you can fit a small tablet in here if you shimmy it around the zipper. On the side of the LTT is a compartment that's basically the same as the front. It opens up like a door and this pocket is convenient for your mouse or your cable. And there's another mesh area but this is cool. It's got a flat for what? I'm not sure. Maybe putting a battery in here and then extending it out to your phone to play some Pokemon Go as you're walking around the city. Do people still do that nowadays? For the drifter on each of the sides it's basically the same but there's a water bottle pocket and then a small other one on both sides. So if you're walking around the city and traveling, hydration is an absolute must. Finally we're at the back side of each one. LTT has a removable strap that you put across like this to put over your suitcase. But back here they have a secret pocket that's RFID blocking for your important passports and stuff. Now it's pretty hard to access especially if you have this on so it's not all that useful. And this uses tiny velcro squares so if these get loose it's not very good. On the other hand the drifter has one secret padded pocket near the lumbar area but it's barely a secret because the zipper is right there. So both backpacks have a lot of straps on the outside so you can clip even more stuff to your backpack. I personally don't use these because the backpacks are big enough. They're already doubling the amount of horizontal space I would take. I wouldn't want to take more. And wow they both have an insane amount of pockets. While I appreciate having so many different ways to organize everything, it can become a little overwhelming if you don't remember exactly where you put everything. Especially if you don't have the space to open up every single zipper to see inside every single sleeve and pouch. If you're going through an airport that requires all your devices to be taken out of the bag, you might end up being the person holding up the line if you don't exclusively place them in your tech compartment. I can already imagine it. The scanner picks up something suspicious as they ask me to unpack my backpack and I don't remember where anything is. So when full both tend to sit upwards of about a foot out. It's not great to have in a crowded space especially if you enjoy turning around fast. But which one is better? Well it really comes down to what you need to carry. If you need to carry an entire tech library for several hours straight, the LTT backpack is a clear winner. It'll keep your stuff organized, it won't leave you with super rough back pain afterwards. But if you want to just go from point A to point B and have stuff in your backpack like a gaming laptop, clothes, a battery or two, the Drifter 2 is worth every penny of the 60-ish dollars. And honestly, we wouldn't choose either of them. After experimenting with big 35 liter backpacks, we think the right choice for travel is a suitcase and a more compact commuter backpack on top of that. Bye!